Circuit-closer for automobile-signals



I. J. KISSELL.

ClRCUIT CLOSER FOR AUTOMOBILE SiGNALS. .u ucmow mm mm: l9. mu. REMWEO MAR. 13.1920.

1,341,372. Patented May 25, 1920.

sum 11 to z Mot/mu,

I. J. KISSELL.

CIRCUIT CLOSER FOR AUTGMOBILE SIGNALS. APPLICAHON HLEDJUNE 19.19111 RENEWED MAR. [3 I920.

1,341,372. e ted May25,1920.

2 SHH'LTS- SHLEI 1."

Suucufo:

MZ Z UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ISAAC J; KIBSELL, OF COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ARTHUR VINOEI TT SMITH, OF COLORADO BPRINGS, COLORADO.

CIMUIT-OLOSEB FOR AUTOMOBILE-SIGNALS.

Specification of Letters retest.

Patented May 25, 192( Application filed June 19, 1818, serial Ho. 240.807. Bhewedlhtarch 18, 1920. Serial No. 865,628.

To all whom it may concern: p

Be it known that I, Issso KIBSELL, e citizen of the United States, res dm at Colorado Springs, in the county otEl use and State of Colorado, heve'mvented certe n, new and useful Improvements in ChrcurtClosers for Automobile-Signals, of which the following is a. specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings..

This invention relates to automobile Sig-"- nal systems, and particularly to that class of signal systems wherein signal lights are disposed upon the forward end rear ends of the car, the lights bein energized upon the turning movement of t e car. i

- The general object of theinventi nis to provide a circuit control id]; :1 syste character in which wh te l ghts are unted u on the forward end ree i' ends of the car which ere nor-molly ederglzed when the car is running strai ht andcoloredhghts upon the forward on rear ends of the oer which are normally definergized but which are energized when the car turns to the right or tothe left. s t

A further object is to provide a very sun-- ple form of circuitcontroller for dencrgazing these lights which" 1s o medautomatically upon the turmngo the-steeringwheels and'in this connection to provide a switch which, when the car is turned to the right, for instance, will deiine'r zethe white lights on the righthand side o thecar, and energize the colored lights on ther ghthand side of the car, while leaving the white lights onzthe leftha'ndsideof the car energized and vice verse. 3

Other objects will appear in. the course of the following descri tion.

My invention ustruted in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is u fragmentary'elevation of e steefingsha'ft and my switc 1 box connected thereto; y N e 5-, on Fig. 2 is o cliagr'ammatio view showing the electrical connections between the switch box and the signal lights;

Fig. 3 and 4 are side elevations'of the sigmil light switch mechanism showing the parts i-mtwo positions; ahd

Fi y, 5 is a'relir elevation of the sw tch.

. Re erring: to these drawings, 10 designates the casing which may be made of an suitable inutcrial, but which is preferably made" of metal and preferably has a rcfnovablc for instance, the rod 12 will be drawn in one direction from a neutral position and when the steeringlwhcels are turned to the left, the switch rod will be shifted to the left from a neutral position. This box '10 is connected means of a return or negative wire 13 to a battery 14.

Mounted upon one side of the box are the contacts .15 and 1'6, these contacts beiii formed by headed screws passinv throng:

thf'e box and insulated therefrom .by the insl'ilatingwashers 17. Engaging the screws are thebindin nuts 18 of any 'usual or suitable CODSUUCUOH." On the oppositeside of the box are dis osed the contacts 19,and 20,

-which are of t e some construction as the contacts 15 and 16 end sreinsulated from the box inthesame manner and carry the binding screws 18. It will 1 be noted that the contacts 15 and 19 are disposed directly opposite each other at the middle of the box, while the contact 16 is disposed adjacent one end of the box and the contact 20 is disposed adglcent the other end of the box or casing.

acting with the contacts 15 and 16 is'un elongated contnct member 21 which is of metal and has a base 22 from which the contact 2-1 is offset. The extremities of the contact are rounded inward toward the rod 12.- Disposed upon the opposite side of the rod 12 and concting with the contacts 1!) and 20 is the contact member 23, which is constructed in the same manner usthe contact 21. The contacts 21 and 23 project in opposite directions, and the bases 22 of these 1 white lights 26 and are connected to each -the word Stop or a tall lamp 56.

other by the wires 30, and connected to the contact 15 by means of-the conductor 81. From the circuit formed b the wires er:- tends a conductor 82, whic leads to a binding screw 33 thencethro h a fuse 34 to a second bin screw, 'ence to a snap switch 35 and rom'this switch leads a conductor 86 to the batte cuit formed b the wires 80 leads a conductor 87 whi is'connected to the fuse 88, thence to'the. snap switch 39 and thence by way of the conductor 40 to the wire 36 and to the batte Mountg u n the forward and rear ends, of the autom ile at the lefthand side are the colored danger, lights 41 and 42, these lights being preferably colored red and connected in circuit with each other by the wires 48. From the contact 20 extends a conductor '44 which leads to one of the circuit wires and from the other circuit wire 13 extends a conductor 45 which leads to a fuse 46 from which a conductor 47 leads to the wine 86.

On the righthand side" of the automobile, at

the forward and rear ends are disposed the danger signal li hts 48 and 49 connected in firrlzluit saith ea p ogherbliay tlli zdwires 50 these i ts in re era not ri cessarily From he contact 16 15-" lends a conductor 51 leading to one ofthe circuit wires 50, while from theother cir-' cnit wire leads a conductor 52, which extends to the fuse 53 and by means-of the conductor 54 is connected to the wire 86 and thence to the battery.

Mounted upon-2 the rear end of the automobile is a casing 55 having an illuminated license number labile and containing the hte h low the licens; nulamber p t ere 18 a compartment is word of like will- 3 carried in this compartment is a si al lamp 57 behind a sheet of red lass.- rom the battery 14 exten'dsa con uctor 58 to.

the lamp 57 and from this lamp 57 extends i a conductor 59 to the coil switch 60. From the coil switch- 60 extends a conductor 61 which leads to a fuse. 62 and thence by a conductor 68 to the conductor 36 and thence to the battery. ,The lamg 56 is connected "to the conductor 58 and t e lain 56 is connected by the wire 64: to the use 65, the snap switch 66, and by wire 36 to the hattery. The coil switch 60.is, of course, dis- Qosed in the ignitibn circuit of the car.

Vhen this coil switch is turned either to the battery or ma note, the circuit through the signal lamp-5 is broken, but whenever the coil switch is turned so as to cut olf'igni- 14. From the cir chine be' engagement with the contacts 15 and 19 re- ,s tlvely. As a consequence the white lights at the front and rear of the mach1ne areall energized, but the colored lights are deiinergized. Now if therod 12 is shlfted to the right in'Fig. 3, asby the machine turning toward the right, the contact 21 will engage with the contact 16 and move out of electrical engagement with the contact 15, but the contact 23 will remain in electrical engagement with the contact 19. As a consequence of this movement the red li hts 4s and 49 on the righthand side of t e machine will be energized, the white lights25' and 27 on this side of the ma- The white lights the machine, howdeenergized' on the left and si e -of ever, will remain energized and the colored lights on this side of the machine will remain delinergized. When the rod 12 moves back to its neutral position, the white lights will be again encr iced and the colored lights" on the right and side of the mac ine be dene'rglzed. When the rod 12m6v'esfrom its neutral position toward the left in'T'Fig. 3, the contact 23 will leave electrical engagement with he contact 29 thus completmgthe' circuit t rough the red lights 42 and 43 on the leithand side of the machine and definergizing the white switches 85 and 39 so that these white the day" lights may be turned off durin or whenever desired. The circuit throu h the tail fig t 56 is also controlled b t e snap switc 66. The colored-signal am s on the righthand and lefthand sides of t e machine at front andgaear and the stop signal lam 57 are always left in condition to be energlzed or dciinergized by the steering of the machine so as as use these si al lights during the day, as well as at night.

1 course, Sim? switches might be provided for these circuits also. It will be seen that the switch rod 12 being metallic, is grounded through the box 10 and the wire 13 to the battery. Obviously, however, this return may be formed in any other desired manner.

It will be seen that this switch is extremely simple and positive in its o eration. The contacts 2t and 23 are relatively long so that slight oscillations of the rod 12 caused by oscillations of the steering gear will not affect the signal lights. These contact members 21 and 23 are, oi course, somewhat resilient so as to bear firmly the, contact 19 and simultaneously have =the word Stop:

against their respective contacts with'which they coact.

t will be seen that with m signaling system, the car will displaypun er ordinary circumstances, two white signal li' hts at its front and two white signal lig ts at its rear, thus indicating 'to'a 'vehicle approaching in either direction that the car is movmg in a straight line along the road. its soon, however, as the car is turned in one direction or the other, the white signal lights on the side of the car toward which it is turned will go out and immediately the red signal lights will be displayed, thus indicating that the car is about to turn and the direction in which it is to turn.

"While in the drawings I have shown a construction wherein there are two pairs of white lights disposed on each side of the car at the forwardand rear ends thereof, and two airs of colored lifghts disposed at each sid; of thevcar at the rant and rear thereof, yet I do not wish to be limited to this as preferabl I will dispense with the white lights at t e rear end of the car and merely use the colored danger lights at the rear end.

The casing 55 has, as before stated, a compartment displaying the word Stop with a lamp 5'1 behind it. Preferably the word Stop will be put on a sheet 0* plain glass in red letters to be two inches high, the letters to be extendiiigthe' full length of the com artmentor casing'and the letters are coverec with asheet of red glass so that cannot be seen except when the light hind it is illuminated. y using the ruby glass over the, word .Stop the word Stop .canbe easily seen for a distance of 600 feet day or night.

I do not wish tobe limited to any particular means for operating the rod IJ'which controls the switch contacts 21 and 23, but

"as. a simple means to this end, I have illustrated in F ig. 1',- ,th e steerin shaft 67 as carrying upon it a gear whee 68 which engages with teeth-69, on the rod 12 so that this rod-"12 will shift in consonance gwith the :movement of the steering wheel;

While I have illustrated aspecitie form of:

' the switch mechanism and a specific arrangement of circuits, it is obvious that-these may be modified in many ways without-departinc from the spirit of the invention as defined 'in the appended claims.

Having described my invention,"what I claim is:

1. A circuit controller of the chamcter t scribed, including a longitudinally reciprocatable rod adapted to be operatively connected to the steering mechanism of a motor vehicle. a pair of contacts mounted adjacent the rod in transverse alinement, a second pair of contacts mounted one on each side of of the first named contacts, and contact members mounted on the rod and shiftable therewith, and disposed in offset relation and extending in opposite directions, one of said last named contact members coacting with one of the first named contacts, and the second named contact on the same side, and the other of the contact members on the rod coacting with the first named contact on the automobile, a pair of contacts mounted in' transverse alinement, a pair ofcontacts disposed in diagonally related position to the right and left respectively of the first named contacts, and contact members mounted on the rod 'shiftable therewith and disposed in ofi'set relation and extending in. opposite directions, and adapted to be connected to a source of current, one of said last named contacts enacting with one of the first named contacts and the corresponding second named contact, and the other contact on the rod coacting with one of'the first named contacts and I the corresponding second named contact.

3. A signal controlling switch of the character described comprising acasing, a rod sliding therethrough and adapted to be operatively connected to the steering mechanism of a motor vel1 iclc,a pair of contacts mounted on -the casing in transverse alinement, a pair ond named contact and the other with one of theifirst named contacts and the corres nding second named contact, each of sai con-1' tactmen'ibers having a length equal to the distance between the coacting contacts on flint side of the casing.

4. A circuit controller of the character described includingn longitudinally reciprocatable rod, contacts mounted adjacent the rod andin transverse alineinent, and contact members mounted on the rod and shiftable therewith, said contactineinbers each having a base portion attached to the rod and extending outward herefrom, and a portion extending paralle to the rod but s we therefrom and adapted to engage 5111' contacts, said spaced portions of the contacts being resiliently yielding.

the rod and to the right and left respectively I 5. A circuit controller of the character de- "0 scribed including a casing, contacts carried then longitudinally parallel thereto, the last 10 on the qpposite side walls'of the casing and named portion being somewhat resilient.

facing mward, a loniitudinally reciprocat- In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my able rod mounted in t e casing between said "signature in the presence of two witnesses. li-contactb and contact members mounted on i w r 1 and un ied by the rodengaging each with ISAAL hlbbhu one of said first named contacts, said 0011- Witnesses:

tact members each having a base, and a por- EDWARD BALZER,

vtion projecting outward from the rod and NICHOLAS A. Aumz'r. 

